Fifteen Hundred Pages
by ProcurerFaith
Summary: An agreement made between Hikaru and Kaoru must be kept before the Hitachiin twins run out of time. No pairing


_**Disclaimer:**_ _Ouran Koukou (High School) Host Club was created by Bisco Hatori. 'The Lord of the Rings' trilogy was written by J.R.R. Tolkien, and the extract included is from 'The Return of the King'. I do not claim ownership to either of these things, and I am not making any money from this fic (but I am looking for a job as a writer XD) _

_**Author's note:**__ ProcurerFaith is currently converting many of her most recent stories (including this one) to spoken word format. If you are interested in having the spoken word version, complete with soundtrack (of sorts), please drop me a PM and I'll arrange to get a copy to you :)_

* * *

_**Fifteen Hundred Pages**_

Haruhi nervously knocked on the door. She didn't really know why she was nervous; but her heart went 'pitter-patter' in her chest all the same. It had been some weeks since she had last visited the Hitachiin mansion, or since Hikaru had afforded time for social activities. Indeed, it had been necessary for the Host Club to use all their charms on Hikaru to make him attend their daily meetings, even if his solo delegation quota was halved.

For Hikaru, life had become a game of seconds and minutes, every one carefully scooped up and locked into his heart. He had already begun to burn the candle at both ends. He sought more time like a drug, but no amount of time was enough, so satisfaction could never be attained. Every moment was carefully planned and no chances were lost; he could ill afford to lose the minutes that could be so easily overlooked.

A maid answered the Hitachiin's door and smiled, welcoming Haruhi in.

"Good afternoon, Fujioka-san. Please come in," the maid said as she bowed and stood out of the way so that Haruhi could enter. She thanked the maid carefully, and waited for further instruction.

"Hikaru-sama and Kaoru-sama are in the gardens. Please, follow me," said the maid, bowing again. Haruhi felt the overwhelming urge to bow in return, and so she did. The maid smiled. It was a smile that said 'Oh bless you, but you don't get it at all, do you?' With that, she turned and led Haruhi through the mansion, past room after room, until they reached a large conservatory. Haruhi looked around her in awe as she was taken inside.

It some ways it was no surprise that she had never noticed the conservatory before; the Hitachiin mansion was so big she was pretty sure she still hadn't seen all of it. Even when the twins had taken her on the whirlwind tour, they had – as was their way – skipped rooms that were of limited or no interest to them.

However, this place was beautiful. The last strains of late afternoon sun fell across the roof of the beautiful gothic glass building. Autumn was arriving gracefully, tanning all of the leaves she touched and nudging others from trees.

"Please, Fujioka-san. Take a seat, and I will ensure that Hikaru-sama and Kaoru-sama know you are here," said the maid, and bowed again. Haruhi thanked the maid and sat down in a leather chair close to the tall glass windows.

From here, she had a perfect view of the main gardens. They were full of the flowers that came tiptoeing in after the bravado of summer; of pinks and gardenias, gladioli and orchids, roses and freesias. It was clear that the lawns were also taken care of immaculately, and as Haruhi mused this, she saw movement in the garden.

She looked across immediately and saw two hunched figures sitting on the lawn, almost obscured by a Royal Red Cotinus. She recognised the matching shocks of red hair immediately, but couldn't see them well from where she was. She got up and slipped into another chair closer to the door which opened out onto the lawn. The move gave her a better view of the twins, and she sat, watching them with an expression that hinted at the sadness inside her.

Kaoru rested back against Hikaru as he read, and nuzzled his shoulder gently, closing his eyes. He was enveloped in a micro fleece dressing gown which looked far too big. It was a pale cream in colour; not dissimilar to the tone of Kaoru's pale skin. His legs were stretched out before him and he was wrapped tight to the waist in a faux fur blanket, camel in colour. Another thick blanket was spread out over the grass beneath him and Hikaru. His hair looked clean but relatively unkempt. As Hikaru continued to read from the book in front of him, he absently fussed Kaoru's hair, twisting it between his fingers and gently rubbing his scalp with his finger tips.

Hikaru was hunched over his twin, leaning forward towards one extended leg and keeping the other tucked up to his side, supporting Kaoru. Kaoru's arm rested on that leg, his hand appearing lazily around Hikaru's knee. Hikaru reached around his brother's now wasted and narrow shoulders and turned the page.

"But all save Legolas said that they must now take their leave and depart either south or west.

"'Come, Gimli!' said Legolas. "Now by Fangorn's leave I will visit the deep places of the Entwood and see such trees as are nowhere else to be found in Middle-Earth. You shall come with me and keep your word; and thus we will journey on together to our own lands in Mirkwood and beyond." To this Gimli agreed, though with no great delight it seemed.

"'Here then at last comes the ending of the Fellowship of the Ring,' said Aragorn. 'Yet I – '" and suddenly Hikaru cut himself off. "Hey, Kaoru. Are you asleep?"

"Not yet," Kaoru said gently, his voice barely more than a whisper. Resting the book against his thigh, finger keeping his place, Hikaru pressed his cheek against Kaoru's hair.

"What did I just read, then?" he asked, doubting his brother's words.

"Hmmm… Gimli and Legolas are going through the Entwood," Kaoru murmured.

"Okay, so you _are_ listening," Hikaru said, with a gentle smile. The smile exposed the tiredness in his eyes; a symptom of the too little sleep he'd been getting. When Kaoru had told him to rest more, Hikaru had said no. When their parents had asked Hikaru if he wanted to stay home from school to share more of his brother's chillingly finite time, _Kaoru_ had said no. He knew that it was too important for Hikaru to stay attached to the Host Club. He knew that when he finally took his last breaths and departed for the Summerland – alone, and that frightened him – Hikaru would need the support of his 'family' more than at any other time.

"I'm always listening," Kaoru said, and Hikaru gently wrapped an arm around Kaoru and pulled him closer.

"Then you must have big ears," Hikaru said, with a wry smile. Kaoru chuckled lightly.

"You're so mean to me."

"I am. I suck," Hikaru nodded in faux-agreement, and opened the book back up.

"'Yet I hope that 'ere long you will return to my land with the help that you promised.'

"'We will come, if our own lords allow it,' said Gimli. 'Well, farewell, my hobbits! You should come safe to your own homes now, and I shall not be kept awake for fear of your peril. We will send word when we may, and some of us may yet meet at times; but I fear that we shall not all be gathered together ever again.'"…

Hikaru was actually a very entertaining reader. He would insert characterisations into his speech, narrating rather than simply reading from the page. As Hikaru read, Kaoru reached up a hand and stroked his twin's face with his fingertips and, without pausing, Hikaru's hand slid into Kaoru's. He rubbed the back of Kaoru's hand with his thumb and pulled both of their hands down, wrapping them around Kaoru's waist.

"You okay?" Hikaru asked his charge, pausing and taking his eyes from the page finally.

"Mmm," Kaoru acknowledged. He took a deep breath, and the weakness of his chest could be clearly heard as he sighed it out contentedly.

"Tired?"

"Mmm."

"Want to stop?"

"No. Not yet."

"You know," said Hikaru, "We should make sure that Hunny-senpai doesn't catch you in this dressing gown. You feel like a life-sized stuffed toy." Kaoru laughed at that; a soft tinkling thing that drifted slowly in the early autumn air. Hikaru smiled and moved the book from one hand to the other, and Kaoru moved his arms to accommodate this.

As the minutes passed, it became increasingly clear that neither Hikaru nor Kaoru knew Haruhi was there, waiting in the conservatory. Still, she watched, mesmerised, though she could not hear, her face turned to the glass. She watched on as Hikaru read from the page, often gesticulating with his free hand to emphasise the text. She paid attention to Kaoru's occasional smiles and tired eyes. She noted the gentle fussing Hikaru would make of either Kaoru, his dressing gown or the blanket, without stopping his narration.

"You'll have to forgive me," said a voice suddenly behind Haruhi, and she froze as though in the act of doing something wrong. With a shock of red across her cheeks, she immediately turned to see Hikaru and Kaoru's father standing behind her. He watched his twin sons through the glass, his expression unreadable.

"Hitachiin-san!" Haruhi exclaimed. "H-how long have you been here?" The twins' father smiled, looking at her for the first time.

"Since just after you came into the conservatory," he said. "Which is why you must forgive me, I'm afraid; I was the one who withheld your presence from Hikaru and Kaoru." Though Haruhi did not ask for an explanation, the man raised his eyes again to his sons and said,

"They have an agreement, you see.

"They agreed that together they would read the longest book they could find that interested them, and that Kaoru would stay until they reached the end. He promised Hikaru that to give him hope. They agreed on the Lord of the Rings trilogy." He smiled softly before continuing.

"They argued that although it is three books, it is often printed in a single volume, and although they were reading from the three instalments it could still count as one book.

"It's just like them.

"But nobody questioned them in the first place." Haruhi cast her eyes out to the brothers in the garden once again, and this time she saw them with a new layer of heartache.

"I want to give them a chance to read to the end of the book. Hikaru _needs_ to read to the end of the book, and Kaoru… Kaoru is waning," the twins' father said. His silence spoke of pain he knew he had yet to endure, a knowledge that every day with his twins and for his twins was sacred, because all too soon one of them would only be fifty percent whole and the other gone from his grasp completely. There was a silence between him and Haruhi for a time, as they shared a moment of pain.

"That's why I didn't tell then you were here," their father said finally. Haruhi nodded.

"I completely understand," she said, though her voice was thin. Together they looked out into the garden once more.

As Hikaru continued to read, a chill elbowed it'd way through the garden. It hitched a ride on the previously gentle breeze and rustled the flowers' undergarments rudely. Hikaru felt Kaoru shudder just a fraction in his arms and stopped reading.

"Are you cold?"

"No."

"If you're cold, we're going in," Hikaru said, raising an eyebrow.

"So, I'm not cold," Kaoru said a gentle smile on his lips.

"Hn." Hikaru said. He slid his hand up Kaoru's sleeve, locking his hand gently around his twin's lower arm to see exactly how truthful his brother was being. Satisfied temporarily, he pulled his hand back out of the sleeve and tucked the edges together as he looked for his place on the page again.

"As Frodo stood upon the threshold, Elrond wished him a fair journey, and blessed him, and he said:

"'I think, Frodo, that maybe you will not need to come back, unless you come very soon. For about this time of year, when the leaves are gold before they fall, look for Bilbo in the woods of the shire. I shall be with him.'

"These words no-one else heard, and Frodo kept them to himself-

"Okay, that was a shiver. We're going inside," Hikaru said, interrupting himself and closing the book finally, tossing it to one side.

"But I'm not cold," Kaoru said, attempting to protest even as another chilly breeze swept him. This time his expression gave him away, and an extended, uncontrolled shiver ran across his body. Hikaru rubbed his twin's shoulder firmly, concern edging across his features.

"You so just lost that fight, you know that?" he asked.

"…I know." Kaoru said, finally conceding with a sigh.

"And how many times do I have to tell you not to lie?" Hikaru said, chiding gently as he shifted to his knees, preparing to get up. The full extent of the younger Hitachiin's fragility slowly became clear as he leaned back on stick-thin arms as Hikaru stood. His arms quickly began to shake under the weight of his body, and Hikaru crouched down, helping his brother to his unsteady feet and wrapping Kaoru's arm around his shoulder. Kaoru wrapped an arm around Hikaru's waist and Hikaru did the same for his twin.

Together, they slowly made their way back to the main house, Hikaru showing a level of patience Haruhi had never seen in him before. As they approached, Hikaru looked up and finally laid eyes on Haruhi. He looked startled, as did Kaoru when Hikaru spoke. Haruhi immediately opened the door for them as they approached, holding it open so that Hikaru could escort his brother inside.

"Haruhi! How long have you been here? Nobody came to tell us," Hikaru said, helping Kaoru into a chair.

"We wouldn't have made you wait if we knew," said Kaoru, catching his breath.

"It's all right; your father was here, and he-" Haruhi looked around, and realised that the twins' father had slipped away. She paused, but her thoughts were interrupted.

"I'm going to go outside and get our stuff," Hikaru addressed Kaoru directly, and he nodded. Hikaru left the conservatory and headed out to the spot where they had been camped, picking up the blankets and the discarded book. Kaoru watched him carefully, his expression one of soft melancholy. He turned to Haruhi and said,

"I'm worried about him. He sleeps too little and dotes on me too much."

"I don't think Hikaru would have it any other way," Haruhi said. Kaoru smiled softly.

"But I'm afraid of how far he will fall when I leave." Kaoru's words made it sound as though he was simply leaving for a vacation, and would return in just a short while. His words reflected the fact that he had accepted his death, even if there was a quiet part of Haruhi that knew Hikaru could not do the same. Kaoru took a deep breath and coughed. His body was wracked for a moment, and Haruhi stood to pat him on the back, his lungs sounding congested and heavy.

"Though you and Tono will be there to catch him when he falls, right? Don't let him fall too far, in case he lacks the strength to get back up," Kaoru said hoarsely to Haruhi when he could stop coughing. Though she expected nothing else from Kaoru, his capacity to give, give, and give again for Hikaru was endless. Even now, in this frail and wilted form, he was intent on putting his brother first.

"I'm counting on you." Kaoru said, with a weak grin. Haruhi, lost for words, simply nodded.

"What are you two talking about?" Hikaru asked as he re-entered the conservatory. His arms full of blankets, he dropped them quickly as he noticed Kaoru wiping a spot of blood from his mouth into a tissue.

"We were out in the garden too long," he said, taking his twin's hand and rubbing his arm. "I'm sorry. I should have known better." Concern was clear in his voice.

"It was what I wanted, Hikaru. There's no need to blame yourself," Kaoru smiled, still never knowing when to stop giving.

'_But to Sam the evening deepened to darkness as he stood at the Haven; and as he looked at the grey sea he saw only a shadow on the waters that was soon lost in the West. There still he stood far into the night, hearing only the sigh and murmur of the waves on the shores of Middle-Earth, and the sound of them sank deep into his heart. Beside him stood Merry and Pippin, and they were silent.'_

_-fini-_

* * *

_Thank you for reading my story to the end! I hope I was able to entertain you just a bit :)_


End file.
